Coyotes in San Francisco: How To Peacefully Coexist
Posted by sfraw on Oct 7th 2015
Photo provided by Janet Kessler, a coyote is shown on a public street in San Francisco. However you feel about coyotes, they’re an increasingly visible fact of life in many San Francisco neighborhoods, often straying beyond protected parkland and out into highly exposed residential areas. Wildlife researchers estimate that about a dozen coyotes live in San Francisco, a city with the second-highest population density in the country that’s surrounded on three sides by water. (AP Photo/Janet Kessler)
With an increase in coyote sightings and close encounters with coyotes in San Francisco parks & neighborhoods, concerns over safety have been raised. Dogs have been lured away and sometimes even encouraged to engage in dangerous “play” with coyotes, multiple dogs have been attacked, mauled/killed, and outdoor cats are at risk for becoming a food source for coyotes.
There are differing approaches to safely and humanely coexisting with urban coyotes, but the first step to take is to educate yourself about these techniques and daily habits, so that you can protect your family while ensuring that our native population of wild canines are permitted to enjoy their lives here in San Francisco peacefully amongst us, unharmed.
We are encouraging everyone to attend the upcoming meetings on Oct 7th and Oct 22nd:
Coyote Hazing Field Training
Wed, October 7, 2015
5:30 pm to 6:30 pm
Pine Lake Dog Play Area (off-leash area next to Stern Grove)
Pergola (wooden structure in the off-leash area at the Vale Ave parking lot)
Presented by Gina Farr, National Coyote Educator, Project Coyote
Learn what to do if you see a coyote and when it is appropriate to haze one. Learn what hazing entails.
Learn how to keep everyone — people, dogs, coyotes — safe, and how we can all continue to enjoy this wonderful park.Farr will illustrate proper hazing techniques and discuss when they should be used. Coyote Hazing Field Training will be held outside, by the pergola in the off-leash area at Pine Lake (immediately adjacent to Stern Grove; next to the parking lot on Vale)
Sponsored by: SF Rec and Park Dept, SF Animal Care and Control, Project Coyote, and SFDOG
NOTE: This is NOT the community meeting we’ve been pushing SF Rec and Park (RPD) to have. RPD is finally organizing a community meeting for October 22, but I don’t have any other details yet. More info to follow when I get it from RPD.
Photo by Janet Kessler
We’d also like to encourage you to read through both the Little Blue Society Human-Animal Conflict Resolution website and Janet Kessler’s UrbanWildness blog. Coyote Coexistence proactively organized an on-the-ground effort on this issue and provide education and solutions for peacefully living with coyotes. Their humane, sustainable approach must also be considered when we discuss possible strategies on managing coyotes in an urban environment. We feel very strongly that Coyote Coexistence leaders/educators should be allowed a “place at the table” when determining how to proceed with the issue of management in San Francisco.
“Janet Kessler I, with CoyoteCoexistence.com, was out here in the park every single day in September, and in August before Eddie’s accident, sometimes several times a day, answering questions, explaining coyote behavior, promoting prevention and vigilance, handing out guidelines and giving one-on-one demonstrations on how to deter an approaching coyote. I had been called in to help because dogs chasing coyotes had gotten out of hand.
Use of the Trocadero for a presentation that I and Mary Paglieri were asked to give by some of the Stern Grove dog walkers, BEFORE Eddie’s accident, was denied by RPD so that RPD and Project Coyote could give the talk. Before that, Project Coyote refused to give a talk unless 50 attendees could be guaranteed, something no one was prepared to guarantee. Nothing has happened in the seven weeks since that time. When another dog group, again, a month later, asked Mary and me to give a presentation at the Trocadero, it again was nixed by Lisa Wayne of RPD so that there could be a RPD/Project Coyote talk.
A presentation by Mary and me seven weeks ago, could have allayed fears which instead have mounted incredibly. RPD nor Project Coyote has helped at all with this issue.”
Coyote on Bernal Hill
Please take some time to read through Janet Kessler’s article, Managing Urban Coyotes: False Advertising about Hazing and Habituation Can Lead To A Coyote’s Death Sentence, go to the meetings, and learn how to behave so that everyone can stay safe.
